Thursday, 12 February 2015

Fitness Goals!

Living abroad, it is really quite easy to fall into bad habits, especially when you first arrive in a new location. You are meeting new people, getting acquainted with your new city and of course, trying out new places to wine and dine.

I have always fluctuated in my habits of working out and eating right, and then being very naughty - this has been a constant battle for me. Moving to Kazakhstan, however has proven to have given me a renewed interest in changing my lifestyle to be generally healthier.

After a brief 'settling-in' period of about three weeks, I signed up with a gym (Atyrau Fitness) and started my journey to a healthier life, and towards my weight-loss goals. Gypsy Lady and I help keep each other on track with eating, and ensuring that we are working out, which has been super helpful. I am down 10kg from when I moved to Kazakhstan and have been feeling great. The progress I am making isn't as quick as I would like it to be, but I am trying to find a lifestyle that I can maintain for the rest of my life. Crash dieting doesn't work for me - I know this, so I am taking it slow and finding what will work and is sustainable for me.

Atyrau Fitness is a wonderful center, they have classes, excellent equipment and a number of trainers that are always around to ensure that you are doing activities correctly to avoid injury. When you sign up, you also get one free personal training session, they listen to what you want and create a program that will help you achieve your goals.

After Christmas, Gypsy Lady, Flower girl and I have agreed to sign up for the Almaty Marathon! I will be running the 10K, Gypsy Lady will be running the Half-Marathon and Flower Girl will be running the full Marathon.

This is my first running race/event that I have taken part in, and needless to say that I am very nervous. In a lot of ways, though, training for the 10K has been more of a mental exercise than a physical one. I think physically I will be ready by April 26th but mentally, I am terrified. I have only been able to run on a treadmill thus far, and have rarely run outside in the past. It is winter deep-freeze right now, so there isn't much I can do about running outside. I am hoping for warmer weather soon, so that I can start practicing!

Right now, I am averaging about 4-5k per workout and I am feeling good about that!

Send some positive vibes my way!

If you are living in Atyrau and looking for a gym, I encourage you to try out Atyrau Fitness!
Here is their wesite: http://atyraufitness.com/ It is in russian, but Chrome does a good job of translating the most important information!